MBC reaches out to Egyptian expert for help
June 6, 2006
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Partnership Missions Specialist Norm Howell hopes to strengthen the ability of Missouri Baptists to evangelize Muslims by bringing in Usama Dakdok, a 37-year-old Egyptian Baptist teacher, to conduct a training workshop.
Howell met Dakdok May 19 in the Baptist Building and was struck by his command of both Scripture and the Koran. Christians who hope to witness effectively in the Middle East – or even in the Islamic centers that dot Missouri’s cities – must read the Muslim holy book, Howell said.
Dakdok’s father was one of the founders of the Egyptian Baptist church in Abo Korkas. The younger Dakdok is now founder of Straight Way of Grace Ministry.
“Within this next year or so, I would like to have Usama come do a full day-and-a-half training for anyone involved in any Middle Eastern work or even for those on our campuses here,” Howell said. “We should at least be aware of what they believe so we can say with legitimacy, ‘I have done some reading in your Koran.’
“We’re sending people ill-prepared into the Middle East. We can’t go there just saying ‘John 3:16,’ because we won’t get that far with them.”
In his seminars, Dakdok teaches that the Koran cannot be the Word of God “because it is full of errors, right and left.” He also teaches that 87 percent of the Muslim people have not read the Koran and are therefore unaware of its teachings.